Back in March of this year, I posted on the blog how the Monadhliath Mountains were to be ringed in a steel fortress of wind turbines. I showed the following map, which shocked quite a few people: I have just edited this with the help of Brenda from the Caithness Windfarms Information Forum who very kindly added the numbers of turbines for each scheme.
In that post I put up a map of the proposed Balmacaan turbine layout which was quite shocking. At the time I could not find the turbine layout for Stronelairg.
Well – I have now. Brace yourselves:
Map is clickable.
These turbines are even bigger than those for Dunmaglass. These babies will be 135m tall to tip. That’s 443 feet tall. I haven’t counted but I would guess there are about a hundred and forty of them.
The heroic Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s reply to the Stronelairg Scoping Report can be seen in full HERE
It seems clear that Holyrood have decided to earmark the Monadhliadth area for development. They've been encroaching from Inverness for years.
ReplyDeleteThis obviously shows why they wanted the Beauly-Denny line in the first place. They'd always been planning for an enormous expansion of wind just outside Beauly.
Basically they're focusing wind on the Glasgow and M74 area, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Strathearn and the Inverness area. These are the main hubs of wind and I doubt there's anything anyone can do to stop them.
Alan, your wake will go down in history just as the last time the Jacobite standard was raised.
Sad beyond words, and I've run out of tears.
No no no no no no no no no no no!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd all for what?
ReplyDeleteRead THIS ARTICLE IN TODAYS'S DAILY TELEGRAPH for a balanced view.
Or... perhaps there is hope, if you read this article?
ReplyDeleteSadly I fear that there isn't. The windfarm juggernaut in Scotland looks like it will defy all logic and common sense until the devastation is complete and the legacy of pointless destruction is beyond repair.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with Andrew and sadly our side is fractured (see any online debates on this issue that crop up on walking forums) and we haven't got student activists on our side.
ReplyDeleteThe BBC Scotland website has got a headline about the protesters against the Scottish company involved with the Greenland drilling for oil. There are people paid to protest on a full time basis against that sort of thing.
But wind turbines are hip with students, so we don't have that kind of fluffy protester that the press love (mind you, Alan is fluffy enough but not that kind of fluffy. It's elitist fluffiness, you see).
I think the only thing that might perhaps sway public opinion is somebody with enough time and funds to go around Scotland taking pictures of the environmental destruction that the wind plants bring along with them.
The public has no idea of the damage being done to the hills.
I said it before, if you look back at what changed public opinion on big issues, it has always been some iconic image (and in recent times think of how often the fake, staged image of the polar bears supposedly stranded on a shrinking piece of ice has been (ab)used in the press).
So we need some shocking images of the devastation wrought on the hills, then there may be a shift of attitudes.
But even there, I can imagine the usual arguments: a small price to pay to save the planet and such like soundbytes.
Frankly, what I think we need is not a moratorium on wind plants, but a moratorium on government. No government for five years. That'll sort out the dead wood.
It's appalling, a waste of money never mind the destruction which in itself is reason enough to oppose the out of control building of windfarms. Is there any way to stop it, it seems the odds are stacked those who oppose and a large percentage of those in favour are interested only in portraying themselves as Green without giving a 2nd thought to the cost/consequences.
ReplyDeleteRichard
I think most folk are unaware of the actual amount of turbines that will be needed to reach government targets.
ReplyDeleteIt's obscene, and all because politicians need to be seen to be doing something 'green'.
Mike fae Dundee.
Falck Renewables have another proposal as well. 17 turbines over 400ft high are proposed for the lower south-eastern slopes of Ben Wyvis centred around an area of land whose apex will be at Meall na Speireig (620m) and extending eastwards towards Glen Glass.
ReplyDeleteThe developer's photomontage shows the turbines will be very visible from the Black Isle and from Wyvis itself and probably from Inverness as well. The turbines are much larger than the 50m turbines at neighbouring Novar. There are Public Exhibition Days at the Diamond Jubilee Hall in Evanton on Wednesday the 15th June between 14.00 and 19.30 or else on the following day at Dingwall Community Centre between 11.30 and 19.00.
More lies and spin and scaremongering I expect. Warning us we will be all be doomed without the wind farms. Oh well onwards and upwards. The worse thing we can do is nothing.
A quote for you all .....
“It’s dangerous to be right…. when the government is wrong.”
Voltaire
Mike fae Dundee wrote: "I think most folk are unaware of the actual amount of turbines that will be needed to reach government targets" Spot on Mike - That's why I keep bashing away at the keyboard to get the message out there.
ReplyDeleteLyndsey: Sounds like another rubber-stamping job... Depressing.
Andy B: That Mackay Consulting report is just so damning - It's what we have been banging on about for ages - and finally it gets to the ears of the BBC - Perhaps now people & politicians will sit up and take notice that Salmond is lying to them.
I should have given you the name of the Falck wind farm proposal in my previous post - it is Clach Liath Wind Farm.
ReplyDeleteHad a depressing day. I was invited to BBC Scotlands live radio debate in Dingwall. Four panels members - pro wind. Most of audience - pro wind. Comments were: Wind farms needed to stop climate change, could easily be taken down, would provide jobs, were clean energy, wouldn't affect tourism - may actually HELP it - oh and the reports weren't true regarding energy companies being paid to shut down when power wasn't needed. Agrrrrr I think we are doomed!
Well, Lindsey, no surprise there, really. I would never accept an invitation from the BBC these days (not that they would dream of inviting me...). They are notorious for cherry-picking their audiences (I've stopped watching Question Time a looong time ago).
ReplyDeleteIt must have been a really depressing experience for you.
In any case, it shows just that if you repeat something enough times on the wireless then it sticks and people not just believe it but cannot even countenance that it could be a load of rubbish.
We are doomed indeed.
They may be right about tourism, mind you, the number of people who have become desensitised to the sight of turbines is amazing.